


Red

by artstaria



Category: Pocket Monsters: Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire | Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire Versions
Genre: Angst, M/M, Sad Ending, general medical warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-02 01:32:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6545011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artstaria/pseuds/artstaria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reverse Colors AU where you can see color, but once you marry your soulmate your world turns black and white. This is how people can tell married couples really love each other because they're willing to give up a world of colors for their soulmate. If your soulmate dies, you get to see color again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry.

Red. It was a gorgeous color, vibrant and warm. The color of Maxie’s hair, his eyes. The colors of leaves on trees as the world around him got colder and colder. The color flicking amongst flames, complemented by orange and yellow. Fire was always his favorite.

And then Archie came into his life, blue and beautiful. As blue as the vast ocean, the stretching sky. A color that he had never really appreciated before. Maxie could get lost in those blue eyes forever. 

 

Their love didn’t last long -- at least that’s what Maxie told himself. Together for a few years before going their separate ways, having different goals in life.

 

They were enemies after that, rivals that hated one another. Maxie had tried to forget about their past, to ignore all they’d been through while on the same team, but it was an impossible task. He couldn’t speak for Archie, but on his side, the hate wasn’t real. Not entirely.  
And then all at once, it was over. The world had been saved from their hands, and everything slowly went back to normal. Those blue eyes were his to get lost in once more. 

Archie’s proposal came as anything but a surprise. Anyone who knew the pair knew that this was coming. Maxie, of course, accepted. He thought nothing of what came after. All that mattered was having Archie by his side; a promise to last forever. 

They had gotten married outside, ex-members of their respective teams filling in the rows of seats behind them. It was at the end of the ceremony when it happened. As those words of commitment left his mouth, everything changed. 

In the blink of an eye, the colors Maxie had always known where gone, replaced by shades of grey. The leaves of the trees, the sky overhead, and even the locks of hair falling in his face were all their own shades of grey. Red was gone, and a look at Archie’s beautiful eyes confirmed that blue was gone too. 

As time went on, the two of them truly started their lives together. They bought a house with a little yard, with extra rooms in case one of their old admins stopped by for a visit. Color was only thought of on rare occasions, such as when Maxie was gardening. The roses he’d planted in the backyard were still beautiful, but their grey was nothing compared to the red they once were.

Maxie and Archie talked about it on occasion, remembering the thousands of colors they had once seen together. It was sad to think about what they had lost, but both of them were happy with what they had. They loved each other more than all the colors in the world, and they always would.

No one expected Archie to fall ill.

Archie had been convinced that he would be fine. That’s what he told everyone, smiling through coughing fits and saying that he felt great. Even when he was moved from bedrest at home to being hospitalized, he still told everyone that he was okay. As much as Maxie wanted to believe those words, he couldn’t deny what he saw.  
Archie kept getting worse. The medicine that the doctors and nurses gave him did nothing, and Maxie was left to sit by and watch. All he could do was watch as the man he loved grew weaker. Honestly, Maxie had no idea how he kept smiling.

Three months. That was the estimate on how long Archie had left.

Maxie wanted to scream when he heard that. Why hadn’t the doctors done something sooner? Why couldn’t they fix him? Maxie knew, somewhere in the back of his head, that they had tried. They had tried and tried again to get Archie healthy again, but they had failed.

Three months.

For those three months, Maxie almost never left Archie’s side. They smiled and joked like they used to, only occasionally interrupted by pain from Archie laughing too hard. He held Archie’s hand while the man slept, trying to be as close to him as he could without actually getting on the hospital bed next to him. There was a nagging voice in the back of Maxie’s head reminding him of what little time they had left, but he chose to ignore it. He just wanted to be by his husband.

Maxie hadn’t even been in the room when it happened. He had gone to go and get a drink while Archie slept, letting go of his hand and pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead before quietly leaving the room. He hadn’t expected to come back to the sound of a flatline. 

Two nurses surrounded the bed, trying to get the man back, but showing no signs of success. When they had stopped, calling out the official time of death, Maxie felt time stand still. He walked over to the bed in a daze, staring at the man he had loved for all those years. Archie looked like he could still be sleeping. 

Maxie went weak in the knees. He fell to the floor, vaguely hearing one of the nurses ask if he was alright. He didn’t answer. He didn’t care. His hair hung in his face as he sobbed, sticking to his wet cheeks uncomfortably. When he opened his eyes again, everything was how it had once been, as if nothing had ever changed the colors he saw. As if the band on his finger had never been put there. As he pushed his hair out of his face, he took a long look at it, before collapsing into another fit of sobs.

Never before did Maxie hate the color red.


End file.
